Three Silent Video/Movement Poems

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The Beginning

In August, we welcomed special guests from Kyoto, Japan, to MassArt and
to the Colleges of the Fenway. The highlight of their visit to Boston
was the formal signing of an umbrella agreement between the Kyoto
Higher
Education Consortium and the Colleges of the Fenway. The mayor of
Kyoto,
the Honorable Daisaku Kadokawa, and Dr. Eiji Hatta, president of the
consortium and of Doshisha . . .
Please let me or Johanna Branson know if you have
any existing connection with Kyoto colleges or universities or if you
would like to be a part of any further planning that we do in regard to
developing student and/or faculty exchanges.

Kay
Katherine Sloan
President
===
Hi Natalie,

I have saved this email from Kay since september because I am really
interested in exploring some kind of faculty/student performance
exchange, if there is a college in Kyoto that has a performance
program. Perhaps I should email Johanna directly. Faculty development
grants are available and due jan. 19. I was thinking of applying for
some money to go there and meet with people and see what might be set
up
as an exchange of some kind. However, I don't have a clue where to
start. Do you?? Obviously, I'd need to establish some contacts in a
timely fashion because the grant application is due very soon.

Happy New Year to you!

Best,
Dawn
===
Hi Dawn,

I'm excited to hear of your interest in a faculty/student performance
exchange in Kyoto. The COF-Kyoto Higher Ed Consortium is overseen by
the Colleges of the Fenway. I am forwarding your message to Robin
Melavalin, director the COF Global Education Opportunities Center, as I
believe she would be the best contact person on this.

Thanks,
Natalie
===
Dawn,
A group of representatives from Kyoto are coming to visit the colleges
on January 21 and 22. Robin and I just spoke today about the schedule
for this visit and it will include an opportunity for those faculty who
are interested in exchanges to come and meet the representatives. They
do want to talk with folks interested in student and faculty exchanges.
Michele Furst is the MassArt rep on the committee working to identify
opportunities that can come out of this agreement. I believe that
Michele should have copies of some of the catalogues they gave us
during their last visit, which includes listings of all the colleges,
their majors, etc.

Claire

Stephen:

So we were off and six months later we were flying to Osaka to spend three wqeeks in Kyoto
to talk to some colleges and make some videos.

First Part - July 8 -July 20

Yesterday was Sunday, July 11 and Dawn decided to go across
the
alley.
We had been told that it was a small store/workshop where a woman made
and sold clothing made from used kimonos and yukatas (summer kimonos).
Dawn is looking for some material to use as wrapping for her body when
she makes her video poems in temple gardens.

We were also told that she did not speak any English.

Dawn saw that she was open, but by the time she got ready,
the place
seemed closed. Later, her sign came out again and Dawn screwed up her
courage to go over again and this time I said I would accompany her and
bring the laptop.

We knocked on the door, said one or two of our survival
phrases
(though
we forgot the most obvious one) and she invited us in. Off with the
shoes and on with the slippers that waited by the door and we entered a
small shop with two rooms with beautiful clothes hanging on display. We
were going to try to communicate with Google translator and it worked,
in one direction. I could type in the English and she could read the
Japanese that Google produced.
==========
Dawn:

Of course, the plot thickened. I was not accustomed to such linguistic
incapability, since many of our recent travels have been in France
where I can get along. We showed her the video of "Haiku" so she could
get the idea of what we're trying to do here. She "oohed and "ahhed"
and
seemed to appreciate the work; then I ran back across the alley to get
the letter of introduction, in Japanese, that Junko (a lovely woman on
staff of Showa Boston) had written on my behalf. We decided to return
at
a future time; didn't want her to think that we wouldn' t buy anything,
but had difficulty establishing when she'd be open. She insisted on
calling our Australian landlord, who speaks Japanese, for some
translation. I didn't want to bother him, but...
=======

Stephen:

Before this I had been running the computer at our house
without the
AC
adapter, so in the middle of all this we ran out of power. I had to run
back to our place to get our power adaptor.

This meant:

I had to take my slippers off and put my
shoes on

so I could run across the alley to

take off my shoes and put a different
pair of slippers on

to walk on our tatamis to get the
adapter, go back to the
door so

I could take my slippers off and put my
shoes on

retrace the seven steps across the alley

where I took my shoes off, put the first
pair of slippers back on again

and then plug in the computer which
had suspended in the
middle of
Haiku.

Dawn:

We have visited four temples/gardens so far. More on that later.
Shoren-in Temple brought tears to my eyes: the proportions seemed
perfect: of pond, garden, rock, plants, and the framing of the views by
the beautifully painted sliding rice paper doors.; an 800-year old
camphor tree at the entrance!
Must run now as we will do Zazen this morning at Shunko-in Temple,
spend
the day there, stay overnight, and tomorrow we hope to shoot footage
for a
silent video/movement poem in their garden.

Shunko-in

=========

Stephen:

We got back today from our first two days of shooting video at the
Shunko-in, a Zen Buddhist temple that had been recommended to us by
Peter Grilli at the Japan Society of Boston. More about that
later.
Tonight we find the map that Rory, our landlord, had left for us that
allows us to find a restaurant that he had recommended to us on our
first day and now are off to have dinner.
We are walking in the rain because this is the rainy season, but it is
only five minutes before we find the restaurant. The name out
front has
a Chinese character (kanji) followed by -boo, so we figured we are in
the right place. We slide open the rice paper screen and see a
bar for
twelve or so people curving around a small kitchen. We are
shown to
our seats at the bar and given hot wet washcloths to refresh ourselves
before our meal. We are given a menu in English that explains the
dishes and also says that while they don't speak English we should feel
welcome here.
Japanese fusion would be a good beginning as a description of the
place.

This is what we ate:

A green salad filled with sashimi (raw fish)
. It came on a beautiful plate with a small
bamboo bowl on one side
stacked with a different salad.

A bowl of Bok Choi with scallops. It came with two small bowls, a
wooden ladle, and
two wooden
spoons. I ladled out the food and it was delicious

Then we decided on beef of some kind and a skillet of potatoes with
Parmesan (very unjapanese) I used the verb osusume about the beef
to
ask the waiter to recommend what beef dish, and he served us a
plate of
raw beef cubes and vegetable and placed a small brazier and bamboo
coals
between us and placed a hot skillet with melted butter on
it. Again I
cooked and served.

We accompanied our meal with a couple of Kirins.
=================
Dawn:
All the plates and bowls were original and unique pottery or bamboo,
hand-carved. The food was amazing, which was great because we
hadn't been
having such
great luck with food. A young woman sitting two seats to Stephen's
left
smiled at us and showed us a very funny and useful comic book guide to
Japanese food for English speakers. She was the first Japanese stranger
to smile and actually extend herself to us. As the evening developed,
it
turns out that she thought Stephen's voice sounded just like Eric
Clapton's. She was clearly captivated by Stephen. She did speak
some
English, and we heard about her time in NYC and London in the fashion
industry. Then a
gentleman showed up and sat next to her. They conversed, and he said to
us in English, "She thinks Japanese men are all male chauvinist pigs!"
Perhaps she made this remark because she was shocked that Stephen did
the
little grilling and serving of the food, and he served me first. In
Japan, women always doing the cooking and ordering and serve the men
first.

Her name wass Kumiko.
===========
Stephen:

Dawn didn't hear it, but she commented on how beautiful Dawn
was. She
thought our chopstick work was admirable also. The man and I
talked
about Zen and sitting and I told him that I was brought to Zen
partially
through my reading of a book on Quantum Mechanics called "The Wu LI
Dancing Masters." He brought out a small notebook and asked me to
write
down the name of the book.

In the middle of all this, after presenting us
with a bamboo shoot full of
very
good sake and a glass of French wine, the young owner gave us two fans
that
had been made by his father out of bamboo for which the restaurant is
named. We wanted to buy some more because they were so
beautiful, so
he got on the phone and said that we could have them in five
days. So
we will return next week to pick up our fans, but certainly will return
before then for another meal.

On the way out, I nearly got a hug from Kumiko.

A fun evening.
===========
Dawn:

Yes, Kumiko was the most effusive (and slightly drunk) Japanese
woman I have ever met. She was on the verge of hugging both of us
and said. "I want to see you again.”
===========
Stephen:

We returned to Bamboo Sunday night. We had said we would
and we
needed to pick up the fans that we ordered. Luck has a lot to do
with
what happens to you are traveling. More akin to pinball than some
strategy game like Go. The first night had been fun and magical.
What would happen now? I think it is the Japanese-English food
translating picture book than the owner brings out for us when we come
in. It seems to attract attention. Before long, the young
couple next to us is exclaiming
over it and trying out their English. Again the conversation,
exchange
of food and sake. This time picture taking. Toward the end
of
all this we get a phone call from Kumiko, the owner handed Dawn a
portable phone, and she said she was coming right over.

The fans have been brought out, and we examined one or two. They
are beautiful. When Kumiko comes in, she seems to want to look at
more and we get to see more. She hands the owner the task of
getting them wrapped up again. The food is good again. The
sake is
tasty. In the photo, those tubes are the bamboo containers for
the sake. He
keeps them in the freezer until they are served.
We finally say good bye to all. Our fans are added to our dinner
bill, which we pay with a credit card, a rare occurrence in Kyoto which
seems
to be a cash society.
============
Dawn:

The young woman in the couple is named Yukiko.
We didn't get her
boyfriend's name. He took a picture of Stephen surrounded by
Kumiko, Yukiko, and myself. Stephen will probably attach this photo. It
was quite the
intergenerational, international bevy of women around him! We
also got a wonderful shot of the two cooks and the server. They are a
handsome and congenial group.

Stephen:

Monday morning.

I loaded the camera and tripod, some costumes for Dawn, and we
grabbed the bus for Honen-in. We arrived early enough to sit and
meditate for 10 minutes or so at their front gate. I would not have
been able to do this trip without meditation. I would have gotten way
too attached to what I thought we were trying to do, instead of being
in the present moment with a slight awareness of your plans.

Good thing, because when we finally made our presence known, they
did not seem to be aware that we were coming and after some halting
discussion in English we decided that we would come back tomorrow...
(It was some kind of Holiday that we were not aware of, but, like many
many things on this trip, we did not really understand the reasons, we
just went along.)

Tuesday (next day)

We were invited in and escorted to the back garden. We got the sense
that that was a function (lunch) around noon and we decided that we
would be done be then. Dawn and I practiced making these kind of videos
in Boston before we came on this trip and I am very glad we did. The
rhythm of deciding on movement, framing, exposure and shooting tests
and having Dawn come back and look at takes and reshooting the good
parts had been learned in Boston over a number of days shooting in
Westwood and the practice made a lot more efficient.

The approach
to Honen-in

Moss

The view
from the entrance

In the back

A video still from Honen-in

Second Part, Arashiyama, July 21 - 23

Third Part

People have been generally
wonderful here in Japan. Kyoto is reputed to be more conservative and
reserved than say Tokyo,
but I am amazed when I think of the number of people, all in various
positions, who have been so generously helpful to us. For
example, at Taizo-in Temple, we met with yet another
wonderful young abbot, Daiko Matsuyama, who allowed us to use their
incredible waterfall garden during public hours, and invited us to
return when the temple was closed for some better shots. What a
privilege to be in that venerable and beautiful space, by ourselves, as
the sun was going down. (I do need to ask a Buddhist priest if
mosquitoes are considered sentient beings...)

An exchange of emails

Dear Matsuyama-sensei,

We are leaving Japan on Thursday and want to thank you again for our
time at Taizo-in Temple. Being there alone in the garden last night as
the sun was setting was a beautiful experience. It's been a fascinating
visit, and I hope our video work will do honor to the locations in
which we were privileged to shoot. As mentioned, we were at Shunkoin
Temple earlier in our stay and met your friend Takafumi
Kawakami-sensei. Both of you are doing wonderful work, connecting
Buddhism to contemporary life and welcoming non-Japanese speakers.,
which we thank your for.

It will be awhile before we assemble and edit the video we shot here in
Kyoto. When we do, we will send a "private" link to you, Kawakami-san,
and Kajita-san (or his wife) at Honen-in so that you can approve the
work before we show it to the public. Also, you can then let us know
how you would like to be acknowledged in the credits.

Domo arigatou gazaimasu. I hope our paths will cross again.

Best regards,
Dawn & Stephen
========
Dear Dawn & Stephen Sensei

Thank you very much for coming to the temple the other day.
I feel very happy to hear that you liked here. I hope you have
completed your job and look forward to seeing your masterpiece on the
website.

"Yurosku Onegaishimas" is the phrase that you use as part of
introducing oneself in Japan. It is hard to translate but it
thanks the person you are meeting for
favors that they may do for you in the future. Favors or
requests are
taken very seriously here. We asked our host, Miho, the sister of
the
owner of Maeniiya, of our last machiya in Kyoto

where we might buy some
rope that we see tied to tori and wrapped around rocks. She said
that there is lots in the country, but it is not a city item, but a few
hours later she emailed us a Google map with a store on it that would
sell
it to
us. She also offered to take us there. We of course refused
as it seemed beyond the call of duty. Here, every request gets a
response.

I have learned to listen for the "no". You won't hear it spoken,
but you can sort of feel it. It might be the pauses. An
example: When I was trying to arrange video times in the temple
gardens, at first I asked if we could come tomorrow morning and when I
felt the pause I rephrased the questions to "What would be the best
time for you?" (This
of course is all in English, perhaps more later about our Japanese) and
got the answer that this evening would be best. It was probably
not polite of me to ask a question where one of the answers might be
"no".

Dawn:

This visit and
video-making would not have happened if it weren't for:
Junko-san's
(Showa, Boston) wonderful letter of introduction, written in Japanese,
Yamamoto-san's phone calls (He's from the Kyoto Consortium of
Colleges),
Yamazaki-san from the Kyoto city government (She met us at
the gate of the temple yesterday),
the 'stimulus" grant from MassArt,
etc.....Plus many others who have helped us, like
Kiranada who wrote a
letter of introduction to Honen-in Temple,
Stephen Richmond,
Ken
Furudate, from DOTS
Koichi
Nishi,
Peter Grilli (Japan Society, Boston)
and the list goes on.
============